1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the artificial lighting field and more particularly to a ceiling mounted lighting fixture adapted to mount in a standard ceiling grid and utilizing LED as the source of the artificial lights.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many types of lighting fixtures adapted to be mounted on ceilings of residential, commercial and industrial facilities have been utilized in the past. Such lighting fixtures have included hanging chandeliers, fixtures attached to the ceiling, track lights and the like. Incandescent bulbs or fluorescent bulbs have generally been utilized in such fixtures to provide the source of the artificial light.
Many ceilings in residential, commercial and industrial type buildings have included ceiling tiles of various materials and configurations. The tiles were generally arrayed in a standardized rectilinear matrix or grid often in a T bar grid having basic dimensions spaced to be a 24 inch by 24 inch grid. The tiles were supported on multiple interconnected T bar cross members, generally fabricated from metal, which had outwardly extending flanges for supporting the tiles. Lighting fixtures such a fluorescent bulb lighting fixtures were often fabricated in dimensions matching one or a multiple of the grid spacing, such as 24 inch by 24 inch, 48 inch by 24 inch or the like to replace one or more of the tiles thereby allowing installation of the fixture in the ceiling in any desired array within the grid and supported in part on the cross members. As a result, such fluorescent fixtures including the reflectors, casing and associated hardware necessary for operation were often bulky and costly to manufacture, store and ship. Additionally, while the fluorescent bulbs utilized less electrical energy than incandescent bulbs for equivalent light output, the demands for even greater conservation of energy have indicated that it is desirable to provide an artificial light output that utilizes even less energy than fluorescent bulbs for the same or nearly the same light output and that requires less space for mounting in a standard T bar grid array. Additionally, it is desired to provide a lighting system that requires less maintenance due to a longer lamp live and requiring less labor for installation.
Thus, there has been a need for compact artificial lighting fixture that is adaptable for installation as a standardized T bar ceiling grid without major modifications to the grid and that minimizes the amount of electrical energy utilized for light outputs equivalent to the light output of incandescent bulbs or fluorescent bulbs.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a compact source of artificial light output.
It is another object of the present invention to provide compact source of artificial light output that may be installed as a standardized T bar ceiling grid with minimum modifications to the grid.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a compact source of artificial light output that may be installed as a standardized T bar ceiling grid with minimum modifications to the grid and which minimizes the electrical energy utilized to produce the light output.